I’m a sports attorney and founder of GAME, Inc., where I work on the business of college sports. I run one of the biggest college basketball tournaments in the country, manage the careers of dozens of coaches, and consult in the building of successful programs throughout the college football and basketball landscape. I also help universities better protect student-athletes with Collegiate Sports Advisors (CSA) and teach Sports Management at my Alma mater, Rutgers University. You can follow me on twitter: jasonbelzer, or Circle Me on Google+

Notre Dame's Manti Te'o May Lose Millions On NFL Draft Day Due To Girlfriend Hoax

Pants on fire? The NFL will find out before they pay up. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Manti Te’o had it all. The heart and soul of a Notre Dame team returned to glory, he led the Fighting Irish onto the gridiron in a quest to recapture the days of old. Yet to Te’o, the National Championship, Heisman Trophy, and even the NFL Draft took a back seat to the memory of his girlfriend… a girlfriend who never existed.

In news that shocked the college football world, a story broke yesterday detailing evidence that famed Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o's dead girlfriend was in fact a hoax. The alleged girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, was believed to have passed away of leukemia on September 12, the eve of Notre Dame’s game against Michigan State, and only hours after Te’o's grandmother had also passed. The national media came out in force to document the emotional story of the ultimate love story cut short; Te’o delivered with a 12 tackle performance and an upset win over the then #10 ranked Spartans.

Yet the details that have now emerged point to the fact that Lennay Kekua had never existed, that in fact she was a virtual caricature created by a friend of Te’o and that the beloved football star himself may very well have been apart of the elaborate hoax. Te’o denies all wrong doing, but at one point he and his family corroborated that they had in fact met Lennay in an article by the South Bend Tribune (which was pulled last night). Whether or not Te’o was in on it, what remains certain is that he and Notre Dame knew about the hoax as early as December 26 and that they kept it under wraps in order to avoid creating a media frenzy before the Irish’s BCS national title game appearance on January 7.

While many will await for more evidence to materialize before finding Te’o guilty of being an accomplice to the hoax, fans and the national media are likely to label Te’o as a liar regardless of any new information that may come to light. More significantly, the negative media backlash Te’o could hurt him severely come NFL draft day. Te’o has been widely rated as the best linebacker and one of the top players in the upcoming NFL draft. In Mel Kiper’s first 2013 mock draft he prognosticates that Te’o will be drafted 8th overall to the Buffalo Bills. Based on rookie salaries from the 2012 Draft, falling out of the top 10 and into the second half of the 1st round could mean losing an average difference of $4,000,000 for Te’o!

NFL teams will of course not be as quick to vilify Te’o as the public. His talent on the football field is without question, and so it becomes strictly a question of character. If Te’o is found guilty of being involved in the hoax, no matter to what degree, there is no telling just how far in the draft he might fall. It is unlikely that many NFL teams would be willing to spend a 1st round pick on a player who orchestrated such an elaborate hoax.

What is of greater interest is what happens if Te’o is eventually exonerated. Te’o's worst performance of the 2012 season (and noticeably so) came during the BCS national title game when the Irish were embarrassed 42-14 by Alabama. That game was played some 11 days after Te’o was supposedly told that the girlfriend he believed had passed away never in fact existed. This may just have been the day he simply decided to bring the hoax to an end, but either way it was clear that it had a profound emotional impact that caused him to play poorly during the national championship. To NFL teams that carefully observe how players react to adversity, even if Te’o was the victim in this bizarre story of love, death and football, his final performance as a college football player may end up costing him millions come April.

Author Brendan Behan once said that, “There is no such thing as bad publicity except your own obituary.” For Manti Te’o, it may well be the obituary of his nonexistent girlfriend that is the final nail in his own proverbial coffin.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

You’re right Kristen, we honestly will probably never know just to what extent it effected him during the title game. That being said, the entire country (and certainly NFL scouts) noticed just how poorly he played and it is tough to imagine the hoax had absolutely nothing to do with his emotional state that night.

Ive been watching First Take all morning on this story. If this is a hoax, Manti is at least partially in on it. Also, whats up with South Bend pulling that story? He says he met Lennay. If he met her, then some girl played the part of her. Where is that girl? She doesn’t want to come forward to reveal that she duped him, save the guy’s name? If they just spoke on the phone…same thing, girl doesn’t want to come forward and say, yes, I duped him. Im a triple-L: low, life, loser. Manti’s parents also said they met Lennay. How? Who did they meet? His NFL cache just declined by a few million dollars, no doubt. And whatever team picks hiim up will have to have a huge talk with their players so Manti has the confidence of his teammates. Right now, I kinda fear for this kid’s life. The pressure is on now.

Is anyone floating the possibility that the co-conspirator is the real romantic interest, yet? Football is a still a very homophobic sport. That coinciding with the upcoming NFL draft, where his place in the draft might be lowered if he were gay, resulting in less money. i don’t know why they just didn’t remain silent about it, but perhaps therre were other factors that led the two to create this fake gf and it all spun out of control. We know the where, how, when who and what…just not the why. This may be it.